Volume 24 Issue 6 - March 2019

every once in a while they bring in a special guest. Mike Murley gave a
lecture on Lester Young last October which was a resounding success,
and he recommended me to Colin, who asked me some months ago to
give a two-hour talk on a jazz subject of my choice. With some guidance
from Colin, I decided to present an informal lecture on the role
of the bass in jazz, how it has developed and changed over time, and
some of the pioneers who helped move this process forward.
Colin suggested I bring along my bass so I could play and demonstrate
some musical points directly, which I thought was a good idea.
And to further avoid the monotony of my droning voice, I decided to
pick some recorded examples of key bass innovators and present them
in a more or less chronological sequence. These selections represented
the bulk of my preparation along with a few notes, which I ended up
mostly ignoring. I also resolved to weave the story of my own development
as a bass player into the narrative to make the whole presentation
more personal and less academic.
Hurtling toward senior citizenship myself, I was not concerned
about the age of the 30 or so class members – they were largely in
their late 60s, 70s or early 80s, about the same as many stalwart jazz
fans on the local scene. I was a little concerned that what I had to
say might be too dry or detailed for them and maybe too boring, but
I needn’t have worried. To cut to the chase, after about five minutes
it was clear from their faces – smiling, eager, engaged, loving the
musical examples – that they were enjoying what I was presenting
and I relaxed and started to wing it a bit.
I’d like to say their pleasure had to do with my insight or scintillating
delivery, but no, it was mostly on them. They were bright,
humorous, curious and eager to learn about something they were
personally interested in. Not because of work or money or because
they had to be there, but because they wanted to be there. Like Phil
Nimmons in the previous story, they were having a ball and so was
I, so they all seemed ageless and only a dolt could have turned off
an audience like this. The two hours flew by with me covering only
about two-thirds of what I had planned. Such is jazz and the value of
preparation.
It was all very satisfying and afterward there were some takeaways
I turned over in my mind. I love presentations that combine education
with entertainment, and it was nice to watch these folks learn
new things while also having fun. I’ve often thought that the keys to
keeping your mind and outlook fresh are spending time with younger
people, and learning new stuff. Teaching is just learning turned inside
out and teaching younger students as I have recently has demonstrated
this; their energy and enthusiasm rub off. But this was a little
different; I felt the same inspiring feedback from folks who were my
age or older. It occurred to me that jazz is not a trendy flavour-of-themonth
music, but one which you can savour for your whole life. It’s
not a race, there is no finish line and I felt my angst about aging fade. I
also love the term “Lifelong Learning.” The minute you think you have
nothing more to learn, your life may as well be over.
I was also struck by this paradox in the age-defying process of
teaching/learning: that the very exhilaration of imparting information
to a receptive audience is in itself exhausting – it lifts you up while
JOIN US FOR
A SWINGING
40th
Ken Page Memorial Trust
CELEBRATION OF
JIM GALLOWAY’S
WEE BIG BAND
UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF MARTIN LOOMER
Thursday 14 th March 2019
from 7:30 to 10:30 pm
at The Garage, Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst Street
wearing you out. Old and young.
It also occurred to me that the “new stuff” you may teach or learn
doesn’t have to be contemporary to be relevant. If you discover a
record or a song or any other piece of information that is interesting
to you, its age doesn’t matter because if you’re experiencing it for the
first time, it’s new to you, and that’s all that really matters. Learning
about things from the distant past can lead just about anywhere and
sometimes can offer a new and illuminating window from which to
assess the often inscrutably chaotic present.
As a case in point, the first music track I played for the class was an
off-script illustration of the brilliant-yet-obscure New Orleans bassist
Sidney Brown, from 1927 with the Sam Morgan Jazz Band. I only
vaguely knew of Brown and I’d like to say that this discovery was the
product of my in-depth research for this lecture, but no. As is so often
true, this nugget of new-old information came randomly from the
invaluable musical grapevine: my friend Bill Kirchner sent a YouTube
clip of Brown with Morgan which demonstrated Brown’s fluid and
driving 4/4 bass lines, years ahead of the accepted notion that early
jazz bass playing was all thumping primitive two-beat. This was backto-the
future modern and after 40-plus years of study and listening
it forced me to reconsider my preconceptions about the past and I
decided to include this in my survey to the class. Thus do we all learn,
by ad-hoc sharing.
An Aging Bassist’s Timeout
True to form, schlepping around a bass offered a dose of reality
which almost counteracted all of this rosiness about the class and
the youth-restoring mental benefits of learning. Namely, getting a
bass into Knox College, built in 1828. I’m pretty sure the architects
didn’t exactly anticipate anyone having to get a bass through its front
doors. You know how there’s never a cop or a cab around when you
need one? Well, picture this: there I was with a knapsack and the
JOIN US FOR A
Swingingg
thewholenote.com March 2019 | 37
YEARS
ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATION OF
Knox College
Be aware of the Ides of March and become
entranced by some haunting melodies from
Ellington’s 1957 homage to Shakespeare…
“I never heard so musical a discord, such sweet thunder”
Doors 7:00 pm for Open Seating
Tickets $25 each, cash only please
Questions: phone Anne Page: 416 515 0200
or email: moraig@huntingstewart.com
This concert is dedicated to the memory of saxophone master, Jim Galloway, the band’s founder and leader for 35 years – and to all members passed
MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY